


Paperboy

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 19:37:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2519399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Niall Horan is just your typical frat boy. He goes to parties, dates lots of girls, and has an amazing social life. But once he realizes he's running out of money, he has to look for a job. That's where he meets Zayn Malik, an art magazine editor, who tries to help out as much as he can."</p>
<p>Ziall fic with side Larry</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

It was a cold, windy night in London. A bit too cold for Harry. He shivered in his coat as a cold burst of air hit his face. He honestly didn't even want to be heading to Niall's dorm anyways. He didn't even like parties. But he knew,  _he knew_  that if he didn't go, Niall would get him back somehow. Whether it was announcing that Harry didn't go to the party to the whole school or publicly shaming him some other way, he knew Niall would get him back. People probably wouldn't even notice that Harry wasn't there until Niall points it out; they just all assume that he goes to all parties that Niall goes to. All of Harry's mates make fun of him if they hear that he doesn't go to parties, so it's better that he goes. Plus, Niall should have a friend with him anyways.

Harry shook off those thoughts with a shake if his head and kept moving along. It was only a block or so until Niall's dorm house anyways, he might as well keep going. 

\----------------------------------------------------------

A few minutes later and he saw the familiar figure of the dorm house. It was a brick building with some Greek letters on the top that Harry didn't understand and it had huge front doors. Harry opened the front doors, not feeling a difference in the temperature, and kept going towards Niall's dorm. Two lefts, walk a bit, then a right. He remembered that from the saying 'two lefts don't make a right'; it was quite clever actually. Harry gave out a chuckle to himself while walking up to Niall's door. 

"What are you laughing at, mate?" Harry heard someone say. He looked up and saw a short man standing at his doorway a few doors down. Harry stood silent for a few moments because he didn't know what to do. He didn't even know that he laughed out loud - it wasn't even that funny. He just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

"Eh, never mind," said the short man as he walked out of his room towards the vending machines down the hall. 

Harry quickly walked into Niall's dorm room as soon as he was out of the short man's sight. As soon as he walked through the door, a burst of warm air hit him across his face. He took off his coat and put it on the coat rack and decided to sit on the couch and turn on some TV. It was nice to be in a warm room instead of the freezing, awkward hallway. Right when he was about to change the channel, he heard the bathroom door open.

"Did you know that the hallways are just as cold as outside?" Harry said. He waited a bit for a response that didn't come back. He heard shuffling behind him and turned around.

"Niall."

"What?" said Niall. He turned around quickly, showing that he was wearing a snapback, a tank top, shorts, and supras. He looked like he was looking for something.

"The hallways are just as cold as outside," Harry said, nodding to Niall's shorts. Niall looked down at his bad choice of clothes for the weather. He shook his head.

"We're going to be inside most of the time anyway," he replied. Harry looked at him for a few minutes before turning his back to him while murmuring something under his breath. Niall rolled his eyes. Harry was always like this - worrying about things like appropriate clothing and nice hair and other things like that. Niall didn't really care about things like that, he just wanted to make sure he was slightly presentable; that was enough for him. But all Niall cared about right now was finding his phone. He swore he left it on his bed side table last, but it was there. He kept looking around the room, making a bigger mess than there was in the first place.

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked, his back still to Niall.

"My phone. I swear it was on this table last, but it's not there now," Niall replied, still looking around the room frantically.

"Why don't you call it?" Harry replied.

"Because I don't have another phone to call it from. Could you call it?"

Harry sighed and reached into his pocket for his phone. It was only a short while before he found Niall in his contact list and clicked call. There was complete silence.

Then, a light lit up and a familiar song started playing. Niall looked down to see the light coming from his pocket inside his shorts.

"Oh," he said. He stood there for a few minutes while Harry hung up. He couldn't believe he'd just done that. But with that out of the way, he could get going to the party. He could practically hear the loud music from down the hall, he could almost taste the energy - he was ready to go.

"Harry, now that I've found my phone, we should get going."

"But Niall," Harry said, "I don't even like going to parties. If Liam doesn't have to go, why should I?"

"Because mate," Niall started, urging Harry to get off the couch, "if Liam's not here, I need someone to be with me. You know that. Now let's get going before we miss anything."

Niall grabbed Harry's coat off the rack and handed it to him. He waited until Harry was ready, then he opened the door. A freezing burst of cold air hit him all around and he could feel himself shiver.

He paused for a minute before saying, "Maybe I should change into warmer clothes."


	2. Chapter 2

Niall woke up with a violent banging in his head. He forced his eyes open and tried to push himself up. He couldn't believe he let this happen to him. Usually he leaves when it gets to the end of a party or when he knows he's had a bit too much alcohol. Even when he doesn't, Harry usually takes him back to his dorm. Harry only drinks on special occasions. So how did it end up like this?

"I've got to find Harry," Niall murmured to himself. He looked around the room to try to figure out where he was. He knew he wasn't in his room, even before he opened his eyes - his room smelled like cinnamon and his room was always warm. This room was cold and didn't smell like much of anything at all. Looking around the room, it didn't look like much at all either. Niall tried to get off of the bed he was currently on, but felt something wrapped around him. He looked down to see a pair of arms held closely around him.

"Oh no," he whispered to himself as he turned to see who the pair of arms belonged to. It was a young brunette girl that Niall has never seen in his life.

"Oh no," he whispered again, shaking the girl. People always just assumed that Niall got with a lot of people because of how popular he was, but, to be honest, he tried hard not to do too much of that - especially to people he didn't know. Niall shook her again and she finally woke up.

"Hm? What is it?" She said quietly while rubbing her eye.

"Did we get together last night?" Niall asked the girl quietly. She gave him a confused look then looked down at her arms.

"Oh. No. No, we didn't. You just smelled nice so I slept next to you," she replied drifting into sleep again. Before she was fully asleep she let go of Niall and turned around to clutch to someone else.

Niall jumped of the bed and tried to make his way to the door as quickly as possible. He hated waking up in somewhere forign; he hated waking up in random people's arms. At least he still had all of his clothes on this time. Niall stepped outside of the room into the still-freezing hallway. He turned and looked at the room number.

_110\. That's all the way across the building to get to my room_ , Niall thought. He stood there for a while before deciding that Harry would probably be back at his dorm. Once he started walking, the thought hit him to check for his phone. He always misplaces it and he wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't there. He reached his hand in his pocket and felt the familiar shape of his phone. He was quite proud of himself actually, he almost couldn't believe it.

\-----------------------------

Niall turned the key into the lock on his door and opened it. The warm air hit him as soon as he opened it and it felt amazing. He looked around the room for Harry and found him blended into the sofa, asleep. Niall smiled to himself and shut the blinds. He then got himself a cup of water, took off his shoes and hat, and crawled into bed. Even with his head banging, it wasn't long before he feel asleep.

\-----------------------------

Niall woke up to the sound of his door closing and soft whispers. He couldn't quiet make out what they were saying, but he knew one of the people talking was Harry. He lay there in bed, with his eyes closed, trying to hear what they were saying or at least trying to figure out who the second person was. The conversation didn't last long though and he soon heard the door closing and someone walking around his room. He could tell buy how heavy the feet were that it was Harry, but he couldn't help but to wonder who the other person was.

He knew he saw Harry when he came in this morning, but was there someone else that he missed? His room is pretty small, small enough that he didn't think that he couldn't missed someone. But, now that he thought about it, the bathroom for was definitely closed and (if he remembered correctly) there was a sound of running water, like a sink or shower or something.

So there was someone else here.  _But who?_  Niall thought. He tried to think of someone who Harry might know that could've stayed the night, someone with that soft of a voice. But Niall just couldn't think of anyone. Most people that Niall and Harry hang out with don't have that soft of a voice and they don't know them that well enough for them to stay the night. Harry and Niall were the closest out of all their friends, with Liam in close second and that  _definitely_  wasn't Liam. Niall just couldn't think of anyone it could be.

So, he layed there with his eyes closed until he heard Harry get up to go to the bathroom. He then sat up and looked over the room to see if there was anything different. There was nothing that Niall could notice, but it did smell different.  _That's probably just from Harry staying here for so long_ , Niall thought. Niall was thinking so hard that he didn't even hear his door open.

"Oh hi, Niall. Glad you're up," Harry said making Niall jump.

"Hi," Niall said back, looking around the room once again.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Yeah," Niall replied. "I was just thinking about groceries and stuff that I need to buy." Niall wasn't fully lying. He was thing about that in the back of his head, it was shopping day.

"Okay. Well, I need to get going to work. I have the late shift today. Have to work until 10 tonight," Harry said grabbing his coat and putting it on.

"Harry," Niall said finally looking at him.

"Yeah?" Harry replied buttoning up his coat.

"Why didn't you bring me back to my dorm last night?"

"Something came up," Harry muttered opening the door.

"Oh, b-" Niall started saying until Harry cut him off with the door closing. "Fine then."

\-----------------------------

It was finally Niall's turn at the checkout line at the superstore. The lady before him had gone on a full out shopping trip even though this was an express lane. Niall put his things down on the counter and got his wallet out of his pocket.

"That will be £5.86, please," the lady said behind the counter. Niall reached for his pocket only to find nothing there. Worried he would take too long, he quickly checked the rest of his pockets only to find a card for staples and a piece of lint.  _My mom would kill me if she knew how I'm using my credit card for such a small amount,_ Niall thought. Niall finally sighed and got out his credit card and swiped through the small box in front of him.

"Credit or debit?" the cashier asked.

"Debit, please," Niall returned. He entered his pin code and waited before he heard the words "declined" come from the cashier's mouth.

"I'm sorry, what? Not sure I heard you," Niall said. He was certain that she had said declined, but that wouldn't make sense. He had enough money to buy £6 worth of stuff, right?

"Your card had been declined. Would you like to pay with cash then or another credit card?" The cashier answered solemnly. This was probably the worst situation that Niall's ever been in his while life. He didn't know what to do. He knew he didn't have cash on him and he knew that was his only credit card. So, Niall just stood there, unsure.

He grabbed his stuff and headed back to put them away without saying a word. I mean, they weren't necessities, just an afternoon snack. He didn't need them. He put them back where they belonged and took out his phone. A text from Harry popped up saying, "Don't forget to buy milk and bananas :) x".

\-----------------------------

Niall finally arrived at the door of his dorm. He couldn't believe what had happened. He still couldn't process. All the bank said was that the money was there yesterday and today it was gone. The bank said that they would get in touch with his mom and that was it. They wouldn't help with anything else after saying that.  Atleast he still had Harry, but Harry doesn't provide income very often. All Harry gets money for is for performing on campus once in a blue moon. All he knew is that he needed to find a way to get money in a way that people wouldn't notice for the meantime. He didn't want people to find out he was broke, it would ruin his reputation. He had to find a solution.


End file.
